Jurassic Park IV: The Final Apocalypse
19 years ago, an extraordinary theme park was built. A biogenetics company by the name of InGen purchased a large island off the coast of Costa Rica called Isla Nublar. InGen recreated dozens of living dinosaur species from nothing more than a drop of dinosaur blood from a single mosquito trapped in ancient amber, and released them onto the island where they could live together in harmony. Not only that, but everyone on the planet would have a chance to come visit them. Unfortunately, things went awry when the electric fences needed to contain these powerful creatures burnt out, and they were free to terrorize and rampage the land as they wished. The island was set off limits, and several years later a massive hurricane struck Isla Nublar and wiped out the last few remaining dinosaurs on the island. Dinosaurs had become extinct a second time, or had they? Before being shipped off to the park, the dinosaurs were raised on a nearby island called Isla Sorna, or Site B. After the park failed, the employees on Site B were forced to evacuate, but somehow the dinosaurs made it on their own. Since the last time humans had been on the island just over a decade ago, InGen had gone bankrupt somehow. InGen had established a law that it was illegal for any humans to be on the island, but because of what had just happened to InGen, this law was passed. InGen's rival company, BioSyn took advantage of this by building another Jurassic Park facility on a third island called Isla Muerta. The company now plans to travel to Isla Sorna to collect fertilized dinosaur eggs for their new park. Obviously, someone had to stop them, but who? Prologue: The Jungle Lewis Dodgson tread his way through the dense jungle. His GPS said that he was right on top of a dinosaur nest, which he couldn't seem to locate. "Maybe it's glitching", suggested his partner, Albert Trevor. "Nope, these things never glitch", replied Dodgson. "It's this damned jungle, everything looks exactly the same!". But really, Dodgson blamed Dennis Nedry, but ever since the failure of the first park Dodgson had unkindly nicknamed him "Dennis Nerdy". Dodgson had hired Nedry to smuggle dinosaur embryos off the island, but for unknown reasons he never returned. The fat bastard probably just took the money and ran, thought Dodgson. If Nedry had just returned with the embryos like he was ordered, Dodgson wouldn't be on this dinosaur-infested hellmouth. Dodgson quickly shook his head as he remembered that all this had happened 19 years ago. All ancient history now, and you couldn't change the past. Besides, this was a chance for a fresh start, to finish what InGen had only begun. "Hey Lew, I found your nest!", shouted Albert. "Huh?", asked Dodgson. "Just get over here you idiot!". Dodgson trudged to where Albert was standing. "I don't believe it! Where the hell did you find it?", "The problem was we weren't moving things looking for the nest.", said Albert. "I looked behind a clump of ferns and here it was.". "What the hell, we must have passed those ferns five times since noon!", said Dodgson in disbelief. "You know the drill, grab two of those eggs and we'll get the hell out of here! Mom's not gonna be too happy when she sees what we're doing!". Albert grabbed two eggs and stuffed them into his pack. Dodgson saw the sun going down over the horizon, so the two started heading back to camp. "We'll look for more eggs tomorrow.", said Dodgson. "Trust me, you don't want to make friends with the twisted dinos that sneak around in these parts after dark!". Chapter 1: Hell Creek "This has got to be the most damn-well-preserved raptor fossil I've ever seen.", said Alan Grant as he crouched in the baking sand. He and his colleague Billy Brennan were excavating a Velociraptor skeleton in Hell Creek, Montana. "I can name a few that are a bit better-preserved.", joked Billy. "They're a bit isolated though." "Yep,but as well-preserved as they are, I hope never to see them alive again.", said Grant. He flashed back to his and Billy's terrifying adventure on Isla Sorna 11 years earlier. He remembered the raptors, their speed, their ferocity, but worst of all their frightening intelligence. He and Billy had barely made it off of Sorna alive. Grant was a balding man somewhere in his 50s, and he always wore a white cowboy hat wherever he went. Billy was a brown-blonde thirty-three-year-old, but looked somewhere in his early to mid twenties, and could easily be mistaken for a university student. They had both been called to the badlands of Hell Creek when a couple and their eight-year-old daughter were camping in the area. The daughter had apparently stumbled upon the raptor skeleton they were now excavating while she was trying to catch a small scorpion. "Good to see you again, Dr. Grant!", shouted a voice in the near distance. Grant turned toward his tent to see an elderly man with a white beard, carrying a cane with a handle shaped like a mosquito trapped in amber. It was John Hammond. Chapter 2: The "Invitation" Hammond motioned Grant in his direction. "Good to see you too, Mr. Hammond", said Grant. "What brings you here? I haven't seen you since the days of the park". "I'm holding a very important meeting in San Jose this Wednesday night, and I've managed to convince the rest of the old gang to attend it. I was hoping you could come, too.". "If this is about going to those damned islands again, I won't-", "You don't know how important this is!", interrupted Hammond. "And to make it up to you, I'll fully fund your-", "Bribing me with money isn't going to work anymore!", said Grant. "It's going to take a lot more than that for me to let you drag me back to those death-traps again, this is starting to become a regular thing, and chances are if I go again this time, I won't make it back!". "Please, Dr. Grant, I'm begging you!", pleaded Hammond. "Fine, but if this is about the islands, don't expect me to stay there for any longer than a day!". "I promise you, it will be of relative convenience, much more so than the alternative.". "Okay then, said Grant. When is this meeting?". "At midnight sharp, in the staff room of the natural history museum, if you take the 7:00 pm flight you should get to San Jose by 10:30". "I'll be there.", said Grant. "Can I come?", asked Billy, overhearing the conversation. "Why the hell not!", said Hammond. "I take it that you're Billy Brennan". "Yep, that's me. In the flesh.". "I look forward to seeing you two", said Hammond, and with that, he picked up his cane and limped back toward his Jeep. Chapter 3: The Meeting Grant and Billy made their way through the main hall of the San Jose Natural History Museum. The reconstructed skeletons of various dinosaur species towered over them. Grant checked his watch. It was 11:42, so he knew he would be a few minutes early. He and Billy soon ran into a door labelled "Staff". Grant opened the door and Billy followed. True to what Hammond had said, everyone from Grant's original adventure in the park nearly 2 decades ago was there. Ian Malcolm, Ellie Sattler, even Lex and Tim Murphy, who were now in their mid-twenties. Grant and Billy found two seats next to Malcolm. "Is that you, Alan?", asked Malcolm. "Long time no see". "Likewise.", replied Grant. "And who is this young fellow?", added Malcolm. "I'm Billy Brennan, I used to be a grad student of Alan, but now I'm his colleague." "Nice to meet you, Mr. Brennan." "Call me Billy." "Nice to meet you, Billy". "Do you know what this meeting is about?", asked Grant. "No, John wouldn't tell me. All he said was that it was important". "He told me that, too.", said Grant. Promptly at midnight, several minutes later Hammond walked into the room and sat down at a desk near the front. "Thank you all for attending this meeting tonight.", announced Hammond. "My assistant, Manuel has prepared fresh coffee for this meeting in case you get thirsty." Manuel, a chubby hyspanic man with a thick black mustache handed everyone a cup of coffee. Grant briefly sipped his and then placed it between his legs. "I have gathered you all here tonight to inform you that my former rival company, BioSyn, has yet another scheme to boost their buisiness." "These people never learn", Grant heard Malcolm mutter beside him. "Lewis Dodgson and a number of his employees and colleagues have built their own Jurassic Park on an island not too far from Isla Sorna, called Isla Muerta. As we speak, they are in the jungles of Sorna gathering dinosaur eggs for their park." Several members of the audience gasped. "Their plan is to acquire the eggs of ten dinosaur species, two of each. Their camp is concentrated somewhere in the centre of the island, and the eggs they have collected so far are contained in a safe located in the camp's storage trailer. The reason that I have contacted you is because I have a special mission for you all. I want you to take the 2:00 am ferry to Isla Sorna, find the team's camp, steal back the eggs and return them to their nests. Any questions?" Tim Murphy raised his hand. "Yes, Tim". "How will we know where the nests are on the island". "On your way out, you will each recieve a map of Isla Sorna that displays the nest sites of each of the ten dinosaur species. You will also recieve a sheet with a list of those species. Any other questions?" No one else raised their hand, "Alright, then. Please make your way toward the exit where Manuel will give you your map and dinosaur list." Everyone stirred from their seats and walked toward the exit. After recieving his map and list, Grant looked at the list. *Albertosaurus *Spinosaurus *Tyrannosaurus rex *Nodosaurus *Apatosaurus *Deinonychus *Stegosaurus *Metriacanthosaurus *Baryonyx *Coelophysis Chapter 4: The Dock As Grant sat in the ferry, he looked out his window and saw a Pteranodon fly past, black against the dark night sky. This meant that Isla Sorna must have been dead ahead. "Are we close?", asked Billy, who was sitting next to him. "Oh, yes" said Grant. "Attention passengers, we will be docking in approximately 5 minutes", said a female voice over the intercom. Grant and Billy got up from their seats and started heading toward the ramp. They walked down onto the dock, along with Sattler, Malcolm, Lex, and Tim. Out of the corner of his eye, Grant saw a dark shape surface the water. "What th-". Suddenly, an enormous head, nearly ten feet long beached on the dock. Colossal jaws snapped shut inches behind the spot where Grant stood. For one terrifying instant, the creature's burning eyes met Grant's. Then, the animal slid back into the water, and Grant caught a glimpse of a surprisingly short tail and a long, crocodile-like snout. "What the hell was that?!", everyone shouted. "My best guess is that it was some kind of Pliosaur", replied Grant. "Could that be what it was that killed the crew of that illegal 'Dino-Soar' parasailing thing in 2001?", asked Billy. "Quite possibly", said Grant. "Anyway, it's over now. We should find a place to make camp for what's left of the night, and then tomorrow we'll track down those BioSyn guys". "Sounds good to me", said Billy. The team headed into the darkness of the island's primordial jungles. Chapter 5: Camp The team made their way through the jungle. The haunting cries of various nocturnal dinosaurs echoed throughout the land. Everyone eventually came to a clearing in the forest. It was surrounded by thick brush, meaning that only the smallest dinosaurs could reach it. "This looks like a good place to set up camp", someone said. The team set up their official InGen tents that Hammond had supplied them with. Grant gathered some sticks and twigs from around the border of the clearing, and dropped them in the centre of the circle of tents. He then grabbed a lighter from his pocket and started a fire. He climbed into his tent and tried to get some sleep. However, the screams and bellows of distant dinosaurs kept him awake. Chapter 6: Early Morning Surprise Grant was awakened by a loud grunting and snuffling outside his tent. He checked his watch, it was 7:03 am. He cautiously crawled out from his tent, and gasped as he saw a frightful face staring back at him. He ducked back into the tent. Once the noises sounded slightly more distant, he crawled out from his hiding spot once again. He now had a better chance to study his startler. He saw a large yet delicate body, and a large head with a hornlet above each eye. It looked somewhat like a small tyrannosaur, but had longer, three-fingered arms. From snout to tail, the dinosaur was about thirty feet long. Grant immediately recognized it as an Allosaurus fragilis. He had seen its fossils numerous times in museums, and it was one of the most common dinosaurs he had ever excavated. It had one foot on a can of meat, to extract the contents, which it lapped up with its long tongue. Grant suddenly had an idea to drive the animal off. Its snout was close to the dying fire, so Grant grabbed the lighter from his pocket and started another fire. The sudden burst of flames startled the allosaur, and it uttered a squeal of surprise before fleeing into the jungle. "I just heard quite the ruckus out here", said Malcolm, emerging from his tent. "Yeah, there was a dinosaur here.", said Grant. Malcolm looked alarmed. "Don't worry, I scared him off". "Well that's a relief", said Malcolm. "What species, was he big?". "It was an Allosaurus, so yes, it was pretty big". "Allosaurus. He's about thirty feet long and ten feet tall, right?". "Yeah, roughly that". "Well then, it's good you drove him off or we'd all be lunch. This island is a perfect example of total chaos". Same old Malcolm, Grant thought to himself. The rest of the team soon awoke as well. "Looks like InGen's extinct plants were raised on this island too", noted Ellie Sattler, examining a cycad, which were not native to the island. She guessed they cloned the plants using male mosquitoes, since they suck plant juices instead of blood. "Alright, let's go find that camp", said Grant. And with that, he parted the bushes and walked into the jungle. Chapter 7: Raptor The team trudged through the jungle. Suddenly, Grant heard a rustling in the nearby plants, and told everyone to get down. A Velociraptor emerged from the ferns. Grant recognized it as a male. He was dark green, with a pale blue stripe down most of his side. A series of feather-like quills ran down his neck. His red eyes circled his surroundings. Since Grant and the rest kept low, the raptor couldn't see them. To Grant's surprise, the raptor picked up a stick and a sharp stone. He used the stone to sharpen the end of the stick to form a spear. Grant was awestruck, tool construction in dinosaurs? The raptor let out an ear-piercing scream and lunged forward. Four female raptors, white with black stripes and fearsome yellow eyes followed him. Grant guessed the male must have been a sentry for his group. "Did you see the way he used that stone?", asked Lex. "With the increased appearance of humans in the raptors' environment, they must have learned a few skills from them.", Malcolm noted. "When we interfere with an ecosystem, we also change it. That principle has never lead me astray. Raptors definitely aren't born with that ability. When I was last on the island, 15 years ago, I never saw the raptors do anything like that. They weren't born with it, they learned it. They learned it from us!". "You may be right", said Grant. "But one of the chief effects of evolution is change in behaviour. There's no proof they learned it from humans." "True, but that normally takes millions of years. These raptors have learned to use tools within the last decade, that I am sure of. This island ecosystem is falling to pieces with that established law of InGen having been passed". "Maybe you're right, and maybe you're wrong", said Grant. Chapter 8: The Herd As the team was wandering, Tim saw an opening in the jungle. He thought that BioSyn's camp may have been there. He peered through the ferns into the clearing, but saw no camp. Instead, an open plain lay before him. The rest of the team caught up to him. Grant saw a herd of Parasaurolophus grazing there, with a Stegosaurus plodding about nearby. In the distance, Grant could see the long necks of a brachiosaur herd arching above the trees. But along with the parasaurs were a dinosaur Grant had never seen on the island before. They looked somewhat like the parasaurs, except their beaks were more parrot-like than duck-like. Their front legs were far shorter than their back legs, and on each front foot there was a spike in place of a thumb. The dinosaurs were pale green, with darker green stripes and a cream-coloured belly. Grant recognized them as Iguanodon bernissartensis. Iguanodon was one of the first dinosaurs to be scientifically described. Scientists had first reconstructed the animal as looking like a giant iguana due to its teeth, which along with its thumb spike were all that was known of the dinosaur. This spike was placed on its nose instead of its hand. Only several decades later were more complete fossils found that allowed for a more accurate picture of Iguanodon. Suddenly, Grant heard a rustling in the trees on the edge of the plain, and a pair of Allosaurus burst from their cover, repeatedly releasing the same pig-like squeal Grant had heard earlier. One allosaur lunged at an iguanodont, but the dinosaur reared up on its hind legs and stabbed the predator in the throat with its thumb spike. The allosaur dropped to the ground, lifeless. Then it, along with the other iguanodonts and parasaurs, started stampeding in the team's direction. "Jump out of the way!", shouted Grant. They all leapt aside as the dinosaurs went crashing through the jungle. Nearby, the second allosaur was harassing the stegosaur. The stegosaur rumbled and bellowed while wielding its formidable tail spikes. The allosaur attempted to maneovre around the vegetarian, squealing and snapping at its sides. Eventually, the carnivore decided that the stegosaur wasn't worth his trouble and trudged back toward the woods. "What's next, Godzilla?", Malcolm exclaimed breathlessly. "That camp had better be nearby", said Grant. "This jungle isn't safe anymore". Chapter 9: Egg-stealers "Hey everyone, over here!", Grant heard Billy shout. He walked over to Billy. "Well I'll be damned", Grant said. Ahead of them was a series of trailers. In the centre of them, Grant saw the maintenance trailer. He and the team snuck over to it and tried to open the door. "It's locked!", Grant said. Billy then came and kicked the door open. They walked inside. On a table in the far corner was a large pack. Grant unzipped it and peered inside. Sure enough, a number of large multicoloured eggs were contained inside. The name of each species was tatooed onto the side of the egg, making identification easy. Grant took each egg from the pack, and gently placed them in his own bag. "Now get out of here! Hurry!", everyone ran as fast as they could out of the camp and hoped to God that no one had spotted them. Chapter 10: Discovery Albert Trevor was asleep in his trailer when a voice woke him up. "Al, get your lazy ass off that bed! We've been robbed!". Albert opened his eyes to see Lewis Dodgson standing at the door. "What do you mean?". "I mean we've been robbed, what part of that didn't you get?! Just follow me!", Albert followed Dodgson to the maintenance trailer. "Everything still looks in place", Albert said. "The pack you knucklehead! It's empty! Do you know what this means?" "Um...", "It means that we're not the only ones on this island! Get everyone together! We're going to have to organize a search party!". Chapter 11: Spitters from above Dodgson and his team made their way through the jungle. Dodgson cut his way through the thick forest with his machette. Eventually, they came into a small canyon. Suddenly, one of Dodgson's employees stopped dead in his tracks, and collapsed to the ground. He was hyperventilating, and a black tar-like liquid on his chest was dissolving his skin like acid. Dodgson left him, he knew there was nothing he could do for the man. He would be dead within five minutes. Dodgson and the remaining members of his team continued through the canyon when another splash of the same liquid landed from above right in front of Dodgson. It was as if someone was shooting it at them. Suddenly, a small dinosaur leapt down from the cliffs and cornered the team. The dinosaur was green-black in colour, with a vibrantly coloured double-crest on top of its head. Dodgson recognized it as a Dilophosaurus. Suddenly, the dilophosaur started hissing and spread a hypnotically colourful frill from around its neck, making it appear larger than it actually was. Another shot of the dinosaur's tar-like venom just barely missed Dodgson's face. Dodgson was thankful for this, as he knew a dilophosaur's most deadly weapon was to spit venom in its prey's eyes, blinding it so it won't be able to defend itself from the upcoming attack. A second dilophosaur jumped down from the cliff, then a third, and a fourth. Soon there were nearly a dozen hissing dinosaurs confronting the team. An ocean of colour greeted Dogson's eyes as each dinosaur spread its fleshy neck frill. Dodgson's survival instincts got the best of him, and he jumped over the wave of frills. He ran and ran and ran for his life, abandoning his teammates to save himself. He winced as he heard the agonizing screams of his former partners in the distance, fallen prey to the dilophosaurs. Chapter 12: Clash of the Titans "First stop, T. rex", said Grant as the team approached a tyrannosaur nest. Grant reached into the bag and grabbed the two tyrannosaur eggs. Just as he was about to place them into the nest, he heard an ear-shattering roar from nearby and the ground began to shake. The trees of the jungle began to rattle as an enormous head peered out from between them. The enormous body of a female Tyrannosaurus rex emerged from the brush. "Nobody move a muscle", said Grant. Due to the fact that InGen had filled in the missing DNA fragments in the dinosaur genetic code with amphibian DNA, this had made many of their dinosaurs noticeably different from their fossil counterparts. Like a frog, InGen's tyrannosaurs were only able to detect moving objects, and Grant had used this knowledge to survive T. rex encounters on his previous visits to the islands. The team remained completely still as the mother tyrannosaur rolled one of her eggs. Suddenly, another deafening roar echoed from the opposite side of the brush. The mother dinosaur snapped her head in the direction of the sound and snarled. Suddenly, a long crocodile-like snout followed by a truly enormous body topped with a fleshy skin sail. "Oh, no! Not again!" shouted Grant. He recognized it as a Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, a North African theropod and the largest terrestrial carnivore that ever lived. Of all the dinosaurs created by InGen, Grant disliked this one most of all. No wait, not nearly as much as he hated raptors, but Spinosaurus was a close second. It wasn't nearly as intelligent as the raptors, but much stronger and just as, if not more dangerous than them. On his last trip to the island, this ravenous predator brought him closer to death than he had ever been before, even on Isla Nublar he had never seen anything like Spinosaurus. The spinosaur roared again and the tyrannosaur roared back in response. They both had a reason to be aggressive, the female tyrannosaur had built her nest on the male spinosaur's turf, so he was being territorial. The female tyrannosaur, meanwhile, was simply defending her nest. The tyrannosaur shifted her weight from one foot to the other and charged, clamping her jaws around the spinosaur's throat. The crocodile-headed beast thrashed and screamed and eventually managed to break loose of her grip. He then slashed at her side, giving her a nasty scar and head-butted her. After a long battle, the female tyrannosaur managed to drive the spinosaur off, but got seriously injured herself and suddenly fell unconscious. Grant very cautiously checked the creature's pulse, she was still alive. So he gently lay both eggs back in the nest so the tyrannosaur would find them there when she woke up. Chapter 13: Raptor Encounter Lewis Dodgson cut his way through the jungle. He realized he was very hungry and tired. As much as he wanted to return to his camp to take a nap, he knew that he had to catch whoever stole his eggs, if he didn't, the future of BioSyn's Jurassic Park would be at stake. He imagined the fame and fortune his company would obtain from their latest project, visitors flocking to the park gates, paying thousands of dollars every day to see his dinosaurs, BioSyn would be the most famous genetic technologies company in history. However, none of this would ever happen if those thieves got away with their crime. These thoughts had hovered in his mind so intensely that he forgot about how hungry he felt, he thought he was about to collapse. Suddenly, a tiny green dinosaur, a Procompsognathus, crossed his path. Dodgson did what he had to do to survive, he grabbed a stone and threw it at the compy. It hit the little dinosaur in the side, causing it to trip. Dodgson rushed up to the dinosaur and stabbed it with his machette, killing it. He picked it up with both hands and bit off a chunk of green flesh. Hunger and exhaustion had transformed him into a dinosaur-eating savage. It wasn't pretty, but what else was he to do. Suddenly, he heard screams echoing repeatedly from the trees around him. He knew what had happened, the scent of the compy carcass had attracted a pack of hungry Velociraptors. He heard a rustle from behind him and spun around. A ferocious raptor head peeked out from the ferns. Slowly, the raptors surrounded him. There was nothing he could do, he was cornered. One of the raptors finally leapt straight at his throat. Dodgson reached for his machette and stabbed the predator in the heart. It let out a final cry before collapsing to the ground, dead as a doornail. The other raptors fled. At first, he thought it was out of fear-induced respect for him. After all, he had just drawn the life from one of their comrads. However, a loud roar ending in a series of strange, turkey-like gobbling noises told him what had really scared them off. He flinched, trying to shield himself from his potential attacker. Suddenly, a small head followed by a long neck and pot belly emerged from the brush. 3-foot claws grew out of both the new dinosaur's hands. As Dodgson looked at its feet, he realized that it had four toes, not three as in most dinosaurs. He couldn't believe his eyes. He was face-to-face with a Therizinosaurus cheloniformis. Chapter 14: Attack of the Claw Dodgson was startled to find a Therizinosaurus on this island. It just never seemed to him like a dinosaur InGen would clone. Then again, InGen had been up to all kinds of crap before their bankrupcy. Dodgson was awestruck, but not frightened. Therizinosaurus, as he knew, was one of the few herbivorous theropods. He still kept his distance, just a handshake from one of those things could slice one's entire hand off. It had long been a mystery to scientists what the claws were used for. It was, after all, an herbivore. Dodgson figured that perhaps if he watched it for long enough, he may have been able to find out. As if on cue, the therizinosaur moved toward a tree and started to pluck branches down with its claws before stuffing them into its mouth. That was it, then. They were to aid in feeding. Pretty frickin' obvious, actually, Dodgson thought to himself. He figured they would also make efficient defensive weapons. Dodgson suddenly coughed, and the dinosaur's tiny head snapped in his direction. The reptile was so large that it had not even noticed Dodgson until he coughed. The therizinosaur mistook him for a threat and roared again. It walked slowly but steadily toward Dodgson. Just as the beast raised its claws, preparing them for a kill, Dodgson leapt out of the way. However, he wasn't quick enough, and the animal managed to graze three thin strips of flesh from his thigh. Dodgson howled in pain and reached for the wound with his hands. He limped into the dense jungle where the creature couldn't follow. Chapter 15: Parental Instinct Dodgson's rival team was searching for the next nest when Billy Brennan saw something that caught his eye. It was a little tail disappearing behind a cycad. Billy followed the animal's tracks until he was lead to an Ankylosaurus magniventris calf. It was roughly the size of a large dog, with big eyes that had a dopey gaze in them. Its tail club was little more than a tiny swelling on the tip of its tail, and a bumpy hide on its back indicated where its armour would grow. Suddenly, Billy felt the ground shake. An enormous plodding figure emerged into the clearing. It was the baby's mother. A huge head bent down to nuzzle the calf. The mother then turned in Billy's direction, apparently noticing him for the first time. Mistaking him for a predator trying to harm her offspring, she began bellowing angrily and repeatedly slamming her clubbed tail against the ground in a warning display. Without hesitation, she charged him. She managed to trample him and batter him badly, but he survived. He felt a pain in his chest area, and thought maybe that meant the mother dinosaur had given him a broken rib. Other than that, he seemed alright. He turned disoriented in the direction of the mother. She was preparing to charge him again, her calf crouching behind her and squealing in fear. Billy started running as the colossal Ankylosaurus followed him. Though an awkward runner, the dinosaur was at the same time a reasonably fast one. He soon came to a large rock that there didn't seem to be any way around. The mother ankylosaur had cornered him. There was nothing more Billy could do but close his eyes and wait for the killing blow from her fearsome tail. Suddenly, he heard a twig snap nearby and he opened his eyes again. A huge Giganotosaurus appeared. Chapter 16: Fight to the Death The mother Ankylosaurus crouched low to the ground, looking something like a giant armadillo, shutting her armoured eyes tight, and curling her tail around her baby. The Giganotosaurus lunged at her and bit her on the back, only to break several of its teeth on her armour. It released its grip to roar in pain, and then decided to try something different. The carnivore attempted to roll the armoured rock onto its soft belly, which it knew from past experience was unarmoured. The first time she didn't budge. The second time the giganotosaur felt her give way a little bit. The third time it managed to completely roll her over. A sickening crack could be heard as the calf was crushed beneath its own caretaker. Despite the danger, Billy thought to himself rather humourously, Just like they say, third time's the charm. The carnivore tore the still-squirming ankylosaur open and plunged its head into her belly. It pulled out a chunk of red, blood-drenched flesh. Billy turned away in disgust and headed back in the direction of his team, deciding he had seen enough. Chapter 17: Billy's Return "Okay, check Stegosaurus off the list", said Malcolm as he placed two Stegosaurus eggs into a fern-covered nest. "Oh, thank God! I couldn't find you guys anywhere. I thought you were goners!", said a familiar voice in the near distance. "Billy. Where the hell were you?", wondered Grant. "In the jungle. I saw a baby ankylosaur and followed it until I saw its mom and-", "Billy! That was foolish. Herbivores can be dangerous too". "Believe me, I've learned my lesson", reassured Billy. "She seemed to lose interest in me when a Giganotosaurus-" "Did you say Giganotosaurus?", asked Grant. "Yeah, why?", asked Billy. "Nothing. we'll just have to watch out for it". "Just like we've been doing with every bloody dinosaur on this island", said Malcolm. "By the way, not sure I know that one. What was it called again?" "Giganotosaurus. Early Cretaceous carnivore, about halfway between the sizes of T. rex and Spinosaurus. And more dangerous than either", lectured Grant. Suddenly, a clump of trees not too far from them began to quiver. Chapter 18: Fighting Dinosaurs "Oh my god, Billy! What if that's your giga...gigasauro...giganotus...um" "Giganotosaurus", Grant said to Malcolm. "And it couldn't be. Whatever it is, it's only causing a few small trees to quiver mildly. If it were a Giganotosaurus, there would be crashing noises coming from the jungle. And it would probably cause tremors at our feet. The worst it could be is a raptor". "Right. Because a raptor is a lot better than a Giganotosaurus.", Malcolm said sarcastically. The jungle parted, which revealed the previously unseen animal. It was about the size of a small rhinoceros, with a bony frill around its neck and a very large beak. "Protoceratops andrewsi", said Grant, identifying the creature. "At least he doesn't look too dangerous", said Lex. "Not if you stay out of his way, no". Said Grant. "But if you piss him off, there'll be hell to pay", he added, motioning to the dinosaur's beak. Suddenly, Grant heard a familiar scream. Not a human scream, but a scream he prayed never to hear again. Sometimes he still had nightmares about running through a dark forest. He would see long arms tipped with sharp claws ready to grasp him and cold reptilian eyes that burned into his own, with the awful screams echoing endlessly through the trees, one after the other. Those screams were the screams of a Velociraptor pack. The raptors leapt from the bushes. The Protoceratops wheeled around to face them. There were three of them, two males and an alpha female. Raptor packs were lead by a ruthless alpha female who had the power of life and death over her packmates, and would not hesitate to kill them if they didn't follow her orders. Some alpha females would even kill raptors in her pack that mated with a member of a rival pack to keep her pack's blood pure. This alpha female seemed especially cold blooded. She began to bark orders at the other two raptors in bird-like chirping noises. They both hesitated to follow the order. In response, she slashed one of them to pieces and tried to attack the other, but he darted away just in time, and her steely jaws snapped shut on nothing, just inches from the tip of her pack member's tail. She screamed in frustration and lunged at the Protoceratops. The herbivore swung his head in the raptor's direction just in time as she leapt for his face. Her claws dug into his head and he shrieked in pain before snapping his beak shut around the raptor's left arm. "Incredible", Grant said as the two dinosaurs wrestled across the forest floor. "This parodies almost perfectly a famous fossil unearthed in 1972, that preserved an encounter exactly like this". He took an iPod out of his pocket and looked up "Fighting Dinosaurs". Dozens of results appeared on the screen. Grant chose an image that showed the fossil on display and held it up for the rest to see. It clearly showed what many people would see as two dusty piles of dry bones. The team compared the fossil image with the living flesh-and-blood creatures tumbling back and forth in front of them, both now fairly bloodied up from the battle. "I must admit there is a strong similarity", said Malcolm, "but what are the odds of an almost identical event happening twice, and millions of years apart at that". "There is no concrete explanation, but nature can be a strange and unpredictable mistress. In the grand scheme of things, this isn't very strange at all." "I suppose you're right", said Malcolm. Just when did he start agreeing with me, Grant thought. "Next up on our list, Spinosaurus. After that we just have one more and we'll be done". Chapter 19: Dodgson's Unhappy Encounter Lewis Dodgson didn't seem to be getting any closer to his goal of capturing the egg thieves. But he didn't give up yet, his company was losing money fast, and this new Jurassic Park was the only solution he could see to boost profits again. Suddenly, in what he considered to be an amazing stroke of luck, he saw human footprints leading away into the jungle. He scowled and began to follow them. But before he could start, he heard a dinosaur scream way off in the distance. At first he thought it was a Velociraptor, but then he realized it sounded too big to be a Velociraptor, and the call was somewhat lower in pitch. Suddenly, a pair of large but very fast dinosaurs zoomed past him and knocked him to the ground. Chapter 20: Utahraptors The Utahraptors turned around and hissed as Dodgson climbed back to his feet. They bore brightly coloured plumage on their arms and tails, and a downy brown coating covered the rest of the animals except for their pink, bald vulture-like heads. They charged again and one managed to knock Dodgson to the ground. It bit down hard on his right arm. Dodgson yowled in pain and tried to shake the dinosaur off. He grabbed a nearby stick and bopped the dinosaur on the top of its head with the stick. The dinosaur released its grip, and this gave Dodgson just enough time to escape. He hid in a nearby bush and covered himself with loose earth to mask his scent. The Utahraptors looked around and around, trying to find him. Eventually, they gave up and disappeared into the jungle. Stupid dinosaurs, thought Dodgson. Probably looking for a decent rotting corpse. I bet they've forgotten I was ever even here. It occured to him that despite being bigger, these dinosaurs were far less intelligent than their smaller counterparts, the Velociraptors. He carefully stepped out from behind the bush and gasped. The human footprints stopped just in front of him. Chapter 21: On the Trail of Theft "Alright, the Spinosaurus nest is dead ahead, go grab those eggs!", called Tim. Grant walked toward the bag but something wasn't right. For several seconds he couldn't put his finger on it, but then with a feeling of stupidity he realized that it was gone. How could he not have realized that, why did it take him seconds to realize what was so wrong with the pack. He saw prints made by shoes leading into the brush. "Dodgson", Grant hissed to himself. "Well", said Malcolm. "Don't just stand there, let's go find that son of a bitch and get those eggs back. The prints look fresh, he can't have gone far". "You're right.", agreed Grant. "If he opens that park, the whole planet is doomed. It will be a repeat of the Nublar incident, but on a global scale. We can't let him get away with this". Grant lead the team into the jungle. Chapter 22: The Plains "Ouch!", said Grant as a tree branch whipped down and cracked him on the head. "You okay?", asked Lex. "Yeah, I'm getting kinda hungry though". "I have a few energy bars on me", said Tim, and he handed Grant a bar. Just as he was about to eat it, a small black blur streaked past him, and Grant heard a bird-like chirping noise. His hand felt sore, and he looked down to see that there was a cut on it, the dinosaur had cut his hand and stolen the energy bar right from under his nose. "You little bastard!", Grant called after the creature. "What was that?", asked Malcolm. "It was going too fast for me to be sure, but I think it was an Ornitholestes", answered Grant. Suddenly, Grant saw a peculiarly thin line of trees and shrubs, and he peered through them. A sloping, treeless hill curved down before him, and beyond that he saw a seemingly endless plain, with a lake in the middle. He saw many dinosaurs grazing there. A herd of Iguanodon drank from the lake, with smaller Pachycephalosaurus wandering around their legs. A group of roughly five Stegosaurus plodded just at the bottom of Grant's hill, and he could feel vibrations just beneath his feet as the huge animals wandered close to him. Three Triceratops, a mother and two youngsters grazed close to the river. The youngsters playfully rammed each other with their budding horns while the mother looked on warily. Further in the distance, a lone Mamenchisaurus moved slowly but gracefully toward the lake, its whipped tail swinging around behind it. Other dinosaurs made way for the huge sauropod as they saw it approaching in the distance. Even from the vast distance across the plain, the mamenchisaur still looked enormous to Grant. It suddenly bellowed its presence to the other herbivores, and Grant heard it as if it were standing right next to him. Several Pteranodons circled above the heads of their ground-dwelling companions. It all looked so beautiful and peaceful to Grant, it was like staring into a museum mural. "Where are we?", asked Sattler, sounding enchanted by the scene that lay before her. "We are at the very edge of the jungle region of the island", said Grant. "This is where it meets the plains region, where most of the big dinosaurs are". "I still prefer it over the jungle", said Malcolm. "You say that now", replied Grant, "but look at all these herbivores, so many huge herbivores also means many more huge carnivores hunting them. We're going to be seeing spinosaurs, allosaurs, tyrannosaurs, and giganotosaurs in much larger quantities than in the jungle region". "God kill me now", mumbled Malcolm. Category:History's Sake